T - Tolkien, J.R.R

Tolkien, J.R.R: person, franchise

I first saw the Rankin and Bass Hobbit cartoon in the tiny gym at Lincoln Park School in 1st or 2nd grade. The Goblins scared me. So I decided I didn't like it.

In 5th grade Advanced Reading class we were assigned to read The Hobbit. I, because that's what I do when required to read something, decided I didn't like it. When we finished reading it, my friend started reading The Fellowship of the Ring. Even though I definitely "didn't like" The Hobbit, I decided to read it too.

My first copy of Fellowship was my Uncles. It had a white cover. I remember reading it by flashlight on the way back from a hockey tournament in Silver Bay (while listening to Milli Vanilli (which was cool at the time)).

I spent the next several years reading as much as I could about Middle Earth. I tried reading The Silmarillion in 6th grade, which was a little bit beyond me. I had the atlas, the language books, the games, his other writings, etc. I used my birthday money one year to buy a leather-bound all-in-one volume (because, of course, Lord of the Rings is one Novel, split in to 3 volumes and 6 books.)

The movies lived up to my expectations, though I worry that people now first associate the words Lord of the Rings with the movies and not the books.